Attributes Of CompassionSample

Hunger: An Appetite for More of God

Hunger pains are real—that ache that gnaws at you until you satisfy the emptiness.

Do you ever feel hunger pains for God or is your soul too stuffed with material things? Are you willing to release your appetite for temporal things and increase your appetite for more of God?

Author Ann Voskamp experienced this hunger for God on a visit to Guatemala with Compassion International. She writes:

…when I’m standing there witnessing a kid at the Guatemalan City Dump looking for something to eat from a garbage heap, I’m feeling this North American bloated. That I’m feeling a little sickened, a little nauseated by the meringue and sprinkles and icing we’re stuffing ourself with that leaves us faith-emaciated. There’s a kid looking through rotting garbage for food, for crying out loud. Somebody — cry out loud.

And the stuff they’re shilling in all the commercials is always only one thing: appetite suppressants. Buy more, consume more, have more — and it’ll suppress any appetite for God.

My head feels light, spinny: Is craving North American success just craving normal appetite suppressants? When your comfort food is comfortable stuff — when do you hunger for the comfort of the bread of Life?

Ruin your appetite with stuff and you have no appetite for Christ.

In our verses today, we learned that when we seek God, we will find Him! One way to increase our appetite for God is help those less fortunate. Proverbs 19:17 says, “Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and He will reward them for what they have done.”

The person in this verse saw the plight of a neighbor in need and stepped in to help. Their loan may have been a monetary gift or maybe it was a generous act of friendship. The poor can often not repay, but God has infinite resources.

Two things are important here: 1) The kindness is an act of compassion. Love is the key. Helping the poor is of no use if it is done for selfish gain. 2) God takes the kindness and considers it as if it were done to Him.

Ann Voskamp reminds us, “It’s only by amazing grace you are born where you are — to be abundant, amazing grace for someone born somewhere else. That’s the point.”

We encourage you to read the entirety of Ann Voskamp’s blog post.